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Jackson, Egerton and Neumann win Inaugural 2008 National MTBO Series

Adrian Jackson (Vic), Thorlene Egerton (Qld) and Kurt Neumann (Qld) scored convincing wins in the inaugural 2008 National MTBO Series over three rounds (8 races) in Victoria, Queensland and ACT.

At the finish of Round 2 in Maryborough Qld, World Number 1 Jackson had an unbeatable total in M21E of 150 points from 5 races. MTB WOC teammate Thorlene Egerton ( W21E) had a formidable 147 after three great rides at the National titles. Kurt Neumann (Qld), who posted 2 good rides in Round 1 in Victoria was overshadowed by Luke Poland (ACT) who won 3 times in M17-20 Elite at Maryborough. But Round 3 saw diminished fields in M21 E and M17-20E with David Simpfendorfer (ACT) winning both the Sprint and Long-Distance titles to vault into second place behind Jackson but ahead of Dion Keech (Vic) by 5 points. With Luke Poland and Joshua Roberts (NSW) riding up in M21 E in Round 3 in ACT, the M17-20E crown was claimed by Kurt Neumann (Qld) from a fast-finishing Heath Jamieson (Vic), who posted better times than most of the W21E riders in ACT. The most exciting competition in Round 3 was in W21E with WOC teammates Melanie Simpson (NSW) and Cath Chalmers (WA) just squeezing in front of evergreen Carolyn Jackson (Vic) to claim the minor placings behind Queensland’s Egerton.

In the unofficial state league title, Victoria (145 points) convincingly won the

Combined M21E/W21E/M17-20E title from Queensland (110) in second and NSW (91) third. Victoria’s M21E narrowly won the Senior Men division with 54 points, just in front of NSW (52) and ACT (33). But Queensland’s Junior Men took out the national M17-20E title, 5 points in front of Victoria, followed by ACT in third. And Queensland’s W21E (49 points) notched a narrow 1 point victory over Victoria (48) followed closely by WA (39) in third place. The 2009 National MTBO Series will be staged in Victoria (April), SA (June) and Queensland (September) and promises to be more competitive than this year.